Creativity in organizations has always been important, but in the twenty-first century, it is becoming object of interest among scientists in the field of management. The article discusses the essence of creativity and its benefits to organizations. Although researchers of various fields, including management, emphasize the benefits of creativity in everyday activities, but the skeptical view, that creativity can be applied only in art and not in everyday activities, still persist. This paper analyzes the scientific problem that is the lack of application of creativity in organizations. The object of research is application of creativity. The purpose of article is to research the applicability of creativity in organization through the analysis of the concept of creativity and its benefits to organizations. Objectives are to identify the benefits of creativity to the organization and to reveal the practice of application of creativity in Klaipeda organizations.
In the analysis of the scientific literature, these techniques have been applied: systematic and logical analysis, comparative analysis, graphical representation. A qualitative research method of semi-structured interview has been used for empirical research. In order to determine the application of creativity in real life, the qualitative exploratory study has been performed. Semi-structured interview with experts has been selected. Experts – managers of various small and medium organizations – have been invited to participate in this research. The study has been conducted in April 2014 in Klaipeda. The aim was to involve managers-experts from different sectors (services, manufacturing, marketing or educational areas) in order to be able to discern certain trends or directions depending on the organization or the organization’ size or even a different leadership experience. Management experience of experts is very diverse, from 1 year to 36 years.
The study found out that although experts have identified unambiguously that creativity is essential in our daily work, it appears that its application possibilities are not exhausted in practice and most have not showed interest or practical application of a variety of creative methods. Experts do not apply creative approaches in their work, they feel instinctively how to behave or to show creativity, but in reality, it is a serious theoretical gap. The results suggest that the development of creativity is yet neglected because neither managers nor employees are encouraged for creative solutions.